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From CMS:
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has embarked on an important initiative to further expand its campaign against Medicare waste, fraud and abuse under the Medicare Integrity Program. To consolidate the activities that support the collection, management, and reporting of other insurance coverage of Medicare beneficiaries, CMS awarded the Coordination of Benefits (COB) contract.
The awarding of the COB contract provides many benefits for employers, providers, suppliers, third party payers, attorneys, beneficiaries, and Federal and State insurance programs. All Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) claims investigations are initiated from, and researched at the COB Contractor. This is no longer the function of your local Medicare intermediary or carrier. Implementing this single-source development approach will greatly reduce the amount of duplicate MSP investigations. This will also offer a centralized, one-stop customer service approach, for all MSP-related inquiries, including those seeking general MSP information, but not those related to specific claims or recoveries that serve to protect the Medicare Trust Funds. The COB Contractor provides customer service to all callers from any source, including but not necessarily limited to, beneficiaries, attorneys/other beneficiary representatives, employers, insurers, providers, and suppliers.
Information Gathering
Medicare generally uses the term Medicare Secondary Payer or "MSP" when the Medicare program is not responsible for paying a claim first. The COB Contractor will use a variety of methods and programs to identify situations in which Medicare beneficiaries have other health insurance that is primary to Medicare. In such situations, the other health plan has the legal obligation to meet the beneficiary's health care expenses first before Medicare. The table below describes a few of these methods and programs.
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